Clustering-based data integrity verification approach for multi-replica in a fog environment

Due to dynamic changes, applications designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) require new storage resources. Storing IoT data in a fog infrastructure is a common practice to guarantee the IoT application’s high performance. Multiple fog nodes spread the data replica to accommodate multiple users and reduce access latency. However, such data replicas are subjected to intentional and accidental corruption. This paper proposes a data integrity verification approach in a distributed fog environment. The proposed work uses fuzzy clustering and consensus mechanism to verify the integrity of multiple replicas stored on distributed fog nodes. Security analysis shows that the proposed approach is highly resistant to replace, replay, and forgery attacks. Performance analysis demonstrates the practicability of the proposed approach in a fog environment.